About

The Skarp Razor is the future of shaving for Men & Women!

At first glance, the Skarp Razor looks like a traditional razor. But that is where the similarity ends.

The Skarp razor is powered by a small laser which cuts through hair for an incredibly close shave without irritating or damaging the skin. There are many benefits to using the Skarp Razor including:

Shaving has been using essentially the same technology for 5000 years. To make any real progress, we needed to take a radical new approach.

2 Billion razors or razor heads are thrown away each year in the US alone! Due to the hazardous nature of the blades, they can't be sorted & no individual municipality or district produces enough to make specialized collection cost effective. So they end up in land fills & garbage dumps.

This isn't 2 billion, but you get the point!

Many areas of the world are experiencing a drought & paying high prices for water. As these droughts become more common & severe, water usage becomes more restricted.

Even though the Skarp Razor can be used with water, for example in the shower, it doesn't require any water. Which will help you feel better about keeping that lawn green or having that next water balloon fight!

Design

Some of the 3D printed prototypes

The design was really important to us. We wanted something familiar yet completely different.

3D printer making plastic prototypes

Together with designers, we created something we believe you will love using every day.

The prototypes we created were built from 6061 aluminum & feel really wonderful in the hand.

Two of the aluminum prototypes with the laser turned on

Our Founders

Morgan Gustavsson MBBS, has been working in the medical & cosmetic laser industry for three decades.

Morgan Gustavsson & Paul Binun

He invented & patented IPL (Intense Pulsed Light) in 1989, which is still a preferred method of hair removal & dermatology treatments to this day.

Morgan had the idea for a Laser razor in 2001. However the laser technology at the time was not available. He soon realized that his idea was a little ahead of its time.

He spent the next decade investigating & made a breakthrough in 2009 with a wavelength that could cut any color hair.

In 2013 Paul Binun joined the effort & working solution was developed. They made quick progress and knew they had something special.

Our lead engineers manage a very talented group

Why we need your support

The demo below was made using our working prototype in our lab. The fiber you see in this video is made free hand in our lab using limited resources.

The production model will be using a high performance precision manufactured fiber, only possible with mass production automated machinery.

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This fiber in this video can only be mounted with rudimentary means, this mean it’s not robust. The production model will have a fiber rigidly mounted along the entire cutting edge.
The laser beam is contained inside the fiber & is also well below eye safe levels.
Notice the flashes as it cuts. This is the shaving light escaping the fiber into the hair. The light doesn't enter the skin & will not cause any skin damage. Sometimes the hair is cut but lightly fuses back onto the hair shaft. This is resolved by gently brushing.
Your support will enable us to secure the high performance & rigidly mounted fiber that can only be manufactured through mass production.

We also welcomed Christopher Zachary, MBBS, FRCP, Professor & Chair at UCI, as an advisor to Skarp. Professor Zachary brings with him decades of experience in the field of cosmetic lasers, a stellar reputation and the resources of University of California, Irvine.

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How it works

Wavelengths of light had already been discovered that could cut through dark hair, but finding a way to cut light hair was proving incredibly difficult.

After years of research & development, they discovered a chromophore in the hair that would be cut when hit with a particular light wavelength.

Chromophores are particles that absorb certain wavelengths (colors) of light.

This chromophore they identified is shared by every human, regardless of age, gender or race.

Our team has made incredible progress, but to start mass production, we require capital.

We have identified manufacturing partners and have preliminary agreements in place. We are in the beginning stages of manufacturing, and thats where you come in as an early supporter.

Prototype with laser attached

We really need your support, and we hope you will join us in the shaving revolution!

Shaving has been the same for 5000 years, it's time to bring shaving to the 21st century.

With the Skarp Razor, there's never a dull moment!

Risks and challenges

Due to the size of the micro components involved, there will be un-known levels of fine tuning required for automated production in high volume. However we have taken this into consideration for our projected delivery of March 2016.

Similarly when ramping up delivery of key components, quality control could become a challenge & is of high priority to us.

The special optical fiber we are ordering with your support is the first of its kind. Everything first time can have un-known risks.

Many have asked us to show a closer shave with the prototype shaver, and we would love to, but can’t. Here is why.

The prototype in the demo video can’t cut much closer because the hand-made fiber in the prototype breaks when lightly bouncing it off the skin. It’s made of glass and is very thin. It also can’t be mounted with the necessary support to prevent that. The hand drawn fiber that you see cutting hair in the videos has an un-even surface that doesn’t uniformly couple the laser light into the hair over the whole cutting region.

Your support will allow us order the new factory made fiber. Please see the time line in the campaign.

The new fiber design can be mounted rigidly & supported to prevent breaking. It also couples the hair-cutting laser 'blade' evenly into the hairs.

The new fiber design has an extremely hard surface. We expect it to take several years to wear it out with normal use, but that can’t be tested until we have made it.

Morgan Gustavsson & his team have decades of experience with bringing new technologies, cosmetic & medical products to market successfully.